Email has become an indispensable tool in today's business environment. The flexibility of email systems, therefore, directly affects the productivity of email users, and thus, business itself. Many if not most email messages are addressed to more than one recipient. In most cases it is expected that each recipient will provide a response to the originator of the message. This is easily done by selecting a “Reply” function button in the recipient's email application. However, when replies are returned to the originator of a message, the replies are returned individually and appear on the originator's system as separate messages which are most often separated by other messages that have been sent to the originator from other parties. Thus it is quite a tedious exercise for the originator of an email message to determine who has replied to the original message, and the substance of each of the replies. The originator generally has to search his in-basket to identify any incoming messages from those who have been addressed in an earlier email by the originator. The originator then has to open each incoming email to determine what the substance of the reply is, then close each reply to search for and open other replies. The originator cannot easily know who has replied and who has not replied to an earlier originator message at any point in time. Thus, an originator has to continually visually check the listing of incoming emails in the email in-basket to determine if any or all replies have been received.
Thus, there is a need for an improved methodology and system for enabling the control and management of replies to electronic messages.